Quote of the Day (Jeffrey Toobin, on the Common Roots of the Russia and Ukraine Scandals)

“[T]he Russia and Ukraine scandals are, in fact, one story. Indeed, the President’s false denials in both of them capture the common themes: soliciting help from foreign interests for partisan gain, followed by obstruction of efforts to uncover what happened. Both, too, share roots in Vladimir Putin’s Russia…. As [Robert]Mueller documented, [Trump campaign chair Paul] Manafort passed proprietary campaign polling data to pro-Russian Ukrainians. The campaign-era Trump portrayed in the report suffered from one major limitation: he wasn't President. He clearly welcomed Putin's assistance, and promised a better relationship with Russia, but he was still just a businessman from New York. The whistle-blower's complaint [about the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] is the epilogue to Mueller's report: the coming of age of an aspiring colluder.”— Jeffrey Toobin, “The Talk of theTown—Comment: From Russia to Ukraine,” The New Yorker, Oct. 14, 2019

(Photo of Jeffrey Toobin taken Oct. 21, 2007, by Ed Schipul from Houston, TX.)